Nickel Allergy and Nickel Free Diets

While the effects of nickel allergy are fairly widely known to
those that suffer from it, one area of nickel allergy is less widely recognized: Dietary nickel allergy.

If someone is sensitive to nickel they know to use products
that are nickel free (such as our nickel free belts). But a growing problem in today’s health conscious
society is the ingestion of foods that are heavy in nickel. The very foods we are told are good for us
tend to have higher concentrations of nickel.
Nickel that is ingested builds up over time, until it reaches a level
that can trigger a systemic reaction.
The most common side-effect is an itching, over-all rash that tends to
concentrate around the outside of elbows and palms of hands. Some medical experts suspect that the
concentrations build up in thicker skin where there is less blood flow. So what foods should you avoid if you have
nickel allergy? Here is a partial list:

On the list of “high” for nickel content:

Legumes, whole grains, and nuts are big culprits. And these
are often the things we are told to eat more of to be “healthy”! Cocoa, chocolate, coffee, and tea are high in
nickel (sorry!). Green tea is worse than
black tea by a considerable amount. Soy
products (do you drink a lot of soy milk?), and some vitamin supplements contain
high amounts of nickel.

One overlooked source of ingested nickel can come from
canned foods, where nickel is drawn into the food product from the can. Another is from cooking food in stainless
steel pots (remember, stainless-steel DOES contain nickel!). While cooking in general is ok, cooking
acidic foods (like tomato sauce) can draw in considerable amounts of nickel. Also, it is recommended that if you drink
water, or use water for cooking, that you let it run a few minutes to clear out
any built up metals in the water.

If you suspect dietary nickel dermatitis (or, as some people
with nickel allergy have found, you have symptoms that are very similar to the
symptoms from auto-immune disorders, such as fibromyalgia) see your
doctor. Besides a low nickel diet,
he/she may prescribe a drug called “Antabuse”.
Antabuse is used to treat alcoholism, and is sometimes prescribed due to
its ability to draw nickel out of the body.

So living completely nickel free may not be as
easy as simply buying a nickel free belt, but at least there is something you
can investigate if you are suffering from strange symptoms of fatigue, have
itching, scaly skin, or severe rashes on your hands and elbows! It may just be your nickel allergy talking to
you ;).